Is Luxembourg en route to a greener future?

Luxembourg may be massively overconsuming but it is making excellent progress to reduce its impact on the environment, a new study has revealed.

14.03.2012

Luxembourg may be massively overconsuming but it is making excellent progress to reduce its impact on the environment, a new study has revealed.

Indeed, Luxembourg is top of the class ranking in fourth place in a list of 132 countries for steps taken to undo its polluting habits, according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).

The EPI rank lists countries according to the change in their environmental progress as well as the efficiency of their policies to address performance issues.

Drawn up by a partnership between the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Columbia Center for International Earth Science Information Network, the study allows countries to track their environmental performance during the last ten years, by ranking countries according to 22 indicators under ten policy categories, including air quality, water, biodiversity and climate change.

Switzerland was ranked as the best performer, leading the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges. The pint-sized country was also first for its work in combating the effects of air pollution on human health and eco systems. Access to drinking water, biodiversity and habitat indicators also helped the country to stand out.

It was closely followed by Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg and Costa Rica. Neighbours France ranked at sixth place and Germany in 11th place.

The worst performing countries out of the 132 nations studied were Iraq, followed by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and South Africa.

The report said: “These results show that it is possible for some middle-income countries, such as Latvia (per capita GDP $12,938) and Costa Rica (per capita GDP $10,238) to achieve impressive environmental outcomes. This suggests that income alone is not a sole determinant of environmental performance – policy choices and good governance also matter.”

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